No Boot Manager Options in 10.1?

E

Expatriot

Hello,

I'm trying to do a fresh install of 10.1 to dual boot on a machine containing only one hard drive with Windows 8.1. (I previously used 8.x in a VMware virtual machine.)

The problem I'm having is that there doesn't seem to be an option during the install process to choose a boot manager before committing disk changes. This results in Windows not being able to boot, leaving me with the options of restoring the Windows boot manager and fooling around with it to enable FreeBSD as an option, or, installing a third-party boot manager to enable both.

My questions are:
  1. Am I correct, or if there is a built-in option to enable multi-booting during install, how do I access it? If I am correct and those are my options, which is the 'recommended choice', including 'best' third-party loader if that is a 'better' approach?
  2. What exactly were the changes to FreeBSD regarding 'Secure Boot' supposed to accomplish? I appear to have mistakenly thought that they were to solve the very problem that I have.
Thanks in advance for the help. I've searched all over, but can't find what I'm looking for.
 
There is the boot0cfg(8) but the installer won't give you an option to install it, it only works reliably on MBR partitioned disks and its use falls into advanced category. Multiboot is not really recommended anymore considering how much the virtualization solutions have advanced in recent years. I would in your situation install VirtualBox on Windows and create a FreeBSD VM.

The secure boot changes were just to make it possible to boot from a disk that has been partitioned for UEFI boot on a machine that has the secure boot enabled, it's not working yet properly as far as I know.
 
Playing with gpart(8) boot code options could maybe resolve your issue. In my case, it was a MBR partitioning schema and Windows Vista. To enable a basic dual-boot menu showing the Vista partition (and its recovery partition), I had to use: # gpart bootcode -b /boot/boot0 ada0. Adapt it to your case, it should work.
 
kpa said:
There is the boot0cfg(8) but the installer won't give you an option to install it, it only works reliably on MBR partitioned disks and its use falls into advanced category. Multiboot is not really recommended anymore considering how much the virtualization solutions have advanced in recent years. I would in your situation install VirtualBox on windows and create FreeBSD VM.
Click to expand...
After reading the gpart(8) manual again, I understand that there is no boot manager available for GPT schemes in FreeBSD, am I wrong?
 
Some net searching suggests Windows 8 can be installed to an MBR slice, which might be the easiest way to go about this. As mentioned above, GRUB2 can multiboot GPT disks, but Windows 8 and UEFI and SecureBoot complicate that tremendously.

As usual, I recommend virtualization instead. There are some real advantages to having Windows in a VM. Unfortunately, FreeBSD as a VirtualBox host does not support 3D acceleration (yet?), so Windows games are out.
 
The only thing that's new is the option to UEFI boot FreeBSD. Secure boot is only a small part of the UEFI boot specifications.
 
kpa said:
There is the boot0cfg(8) but the installer won't give you an option to install it, it only works reliably on MBR partitioned disks and its use falls into advanced category. Multiboot is not really recommended anymore considering how much the virtualization solutions have advanced in recent years. I would in your situation install VirtualBox on Windows and create a FreeBSD VM.

The secure boot changes were just to make it possible to boot from a disk that has been partitioned for UEFI boot on a machine that has the secure boot enabled, it's not working yet properly as far as I know.
Click to expand...

kpa,

Thanks for your help. I'm not quite sure how to make sure that my partition for FreeBSD has been partitioned correctly for UEFI, and if it is, how to proceed beyond there.

When I first starting learning FreeBSD (6.0), I used a VMware Workstation virtual machine because I only had an older Toshiba laptop and trying to multi-boot involved too much shutting down and rebooting into Windows so that I could search online for help in order to make it work. My only complaint with VMware is that FreeBSD is not completely supported, at least on a timely basis, and I've only been able to make the mouse tools (drag and drop, etc.), and screen auto-sizing work intermittently through the various version upgrades (I've even tried recompiling some of the source files as per Rhyous). I've also tried the Open-VM-Tools, but have also had problems making them work over various versions. Finally, I did try VirtualBox several years ago, but I preferred VMware for some reason, not that I can remember now. I'd be more than willing to keep using a virtual machine if I could overcome those issues.
 
Juanitou said:
Playing with gpart(8) boot code options could maybe resolve your issue. In my case, it was a MBR partitioning schema and Windows Vista. To enable a basic dual-boot menu showing the Vista partition (and its recovery partition), I had to use: # gpart bootcode -b /boot/boot0 ada0. Adapt it to your case, it should work.
Click to expand...

Juanitou,

Thanks for your help. I don't think it's available for GPT.
 
wblock@ said:
Not in FreeBSD itself, no, but sysutils/grub2 can do it: Thread gpt-multiboot.49055.
Click to expand...

Mr. Block,

Thanks for your reply. Just so I'm clear, the steps are as follows(?):
  1. Partition my disk for both Windows and FreeBSD (I think I can do this either before installing Windows or after, correct?).
  2. Install Windows
  3. Follow the directions in the link you referenced.
Will the GRUB boot loader be 'smart' enough to recognize Windows, or will I have to add it manually?
 
wblock@ said:
Some net searching suggests Windows 8 can be installed to an MBR slice, which might be the easiest way to go about this. As mentioned above, GRUB2 can multiboot GPT disks, but Windows 8 and UEFI and SecureBoot complicate that tremendously.

As usual, I recommend virtualization instead. There are some real advantages to having Windows in a VM. Unfortunately, FreeBSD as a VirtualBox host does not support 3D acceleration (yet?), so Windows games are out.
Click to expand...

Mr. Block,

It appears that I can switch between UEFI and the traditional BIOS at start-up. Do you think that it would work to start up Windows using BIOS in order to install FreeBSD, and then switch between UEFI for starting Windows and BIOS for starting FreeBSD after that, or do you think that isn't a good solution? I know it's pretty ugly, but...
 
I have not multibooted Windows 8 with anything, or tried to use Grub2 with it. If I had to do it, I would install Windows first on an MBR slice, then add another slice for FreeBSD.
 
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